Two-thirds of churches heard at least one sermon mentioning 2020 election: survey

About two-thirds of surveyed churches had at least one sermon that mentioned the 2020 election between late August and November 2020, according to a new analysis by Pew Research Center published on Thursday.

The organization conducted an analysis in the fall of 2020 of close to 13,000 sermons, homilies or full services made to over 2,000 churches. Pew found that Evangelical Protestant churches had the highest percentage of churches that heard at least one sermon discussing the then-upcoming election at 71 percent. Historically Black Protestant and mainline Protestants tied at 63 percent while 41 percent of Catholic churches heard at least one sermon.

Pew noted that the language used during sermons regarding the election were different.

The organization said that historically Black Protestant churches were more likely to encourage voting behavior in their sermons noting that, “43% of historically Black Protestant sermons mentioning the election either explicitly encouraged voting or discussed the election in a manner that assumed listeners would vote, roughly double the share of any other group.”

Over 80 percent of churches analyzed heard at least one sermon on the COVID-19 pandemic. Between sermons that mentioned COVID-19, racism and the 2020 election at least once, the pandemic was the topic most likely to be brought up in sermons at least once.

Sixty-nine percent of Catholic churches heard at least one sermon about the pandemic, 82 percent of Evangelical Protestants heard at least one sermon and 85 percent of both historically Black Protestant and mainline Protestants heard at least one sermon.

About 44 percent of congregations heard racism referenced at least once during a sermon.

Pew found that historically Black Protestant and mainline Protestants were more likely to use direct terms to talk about racism in America, such as “anti-racism” and “White supremacist.” 

Pew noted that Evangelical pastors were more likely to use terms like “racial tension” and other less direct phrases when talking about racism.

Of the churches that discussed racism, 32 percent of Catholic churches heard at least one sermon, 41 percent of Evangelical Protestants churches, 50 percent of mainline Protestant churches and 52 percent historical Black Protestant churches. 

For the survey, analyzed the 12,832 sermon texts available online from 2,143 congregations in the U.S. between the period of Aug. 31 and Nob. 8, 2020. The data includes 205 historically Black Protestant congregations, 235 Catholic parishes, 388 mainline Protestant congregations and 438 evangelical Protestant congregations.